About Solar Panels for Charities
A specialist service for the third sector: MCS-certified installs, and the funding know-how to make them affordable.
Solar Panels for Charities is a specialist service operated by SEO Dons Ltd (company no. 16766013), focused on one thing: helping UK charities and community buildings go solar without the usual barriers of cost and complexity. We connect village halls, community centres, sports clubs, scout huts, hospices, animal rescue centres and charity premises with MCS-certified solar installers. And we handle the part most installers ignore, which is the funding.
Why we focus on charities
Most solar companies are set up to sell to homeowners or to large commercial sites. Charities sit awkwardly in between: the buildings are non-domestic, but the budgets, governance and tax position are nothing like a business. A charity project lives or dies on three things a generalist installer rarely understands: the 0% VAT relief, the patchwork of grants the third sector can access, and the way trustees actually make decisions. We built this service around exactly those three things.
The result is a process designed for trustees: a clear, jargon-free proposal; an honest payback case; confirmation of your VAT position; and a map of the funding routes that fit your cause and your building. We would rather tell you solar isn't right for your roof than sell you a system that won't deliver.
How we work
We are independent of any single panel or inverter manufacturer, so the system we propose is the one that suits your building, not the one we're incentivised to sell. Every quote starts with a free, desk-based feasibility from your electricity bills and roof plans; no site visit is needed to get an indicative proposal.
If the numbers work, a short survey confirms the design and we move to a fixed-price proposal. We handle the grid application, any planning, and the technical pack your grant bid needs.
Accreditations and standards
Every installation we arrange is carried out by installers holding the certifications a UK solar project should have, each verifiable against the issuing body:
- MCS certification, the standard required for Smart Export Guarantee income and most grant funding. Verify at mcscertified.com
- NICEIC-registered electrical work. Verify at niceic.com
- RECC (Renewable Energy Consumer Code). Verify at recc.org.uk
- TrustMark, the government-endorsed quality scheme. Verify at trustmark.org.uk
- Insurance-backed warranty on workmanship
- Members of Solar Energy UK, the industry trade body
An honest note
This is a new website for an established service, so you won't find a wall of invented testimonials or a fabricated install count here. We'd rather earn your trust with straight answers than inflated numbers. As we complete charity projects we'll publish real, named case studies with the charity's permission. In the meantime, the illustrative examples on this site are clearly labelled as composites based on typical UK community-building projects, and every figure we quote is one we can stand behind.